


Come Morning Light

by flamebirds



Category: Batman (Comics), Batwoman (Comic), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Ignore the tags, deal with my writing being shit, fuck off i'm pissed off and in pain, g o d this year has been a shitshow, have some sadness bc i'm cranky and it's 5am and i can't get to sleep because i want to scream, i feel like shit, its 5, no happy ending, not edited, they're me being a bitter bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 00:50:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15449670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamebirds/pseuds/flamebirds
Summary: Bette goes missing and it takes them all far too long to realize it.





	Come Morning Light

It was Tim who noticed. Tim, who was supposed to be her enemy in the future. Tim, who had grown to love Bruce's cousin as his older sister.

Tim, who noticed that she had been missing for a  _month_.

Both Kate and Bruce had brushed it aside, dismissed his worry. Bette was known for disappearing every once and a while and, though she did usually let them know she was alright, she was probably just caught up in whatever adventure she was having. They could range from murder mysteries to alien invasions and the second she started the case, she could be absorbed into her own little world.

So. Tim noticed she wasn't around. And after the assurances of kate and Bruce, of the two people who should know her better than most, he tried to convince himself that she was fine. That he was being ridiculous and that she could handle almost everything but the 'almost' part always sent a shock of fear down his spine. Bette always went into things head first, rarely with a second thought being given to her own wellbeing, and it worked out for her most of the time.

But what if, a little niggling voice in the back of his mind persisted, it went wrong? What if she was hurt? What if she was taken by a villain, waiting for her family to come and save?

A billion different scenarios had run through his head and not a single one was correct. 

* * *

Two months pass and Tim could see Kate beginning to worry. Bruce had told Barbara and now Oracle was searching for her and it made him slightly sick inside that nobody could remember the last time they saw her. Logically, somebody has to know something, had to have seen anything that could be used as a clue.

But he knew all too well that Bette wasn't important enough. Not to Dick, not enough to let her join the Titans for more than a month. Not to Bruce, not enough to let her know that he cared about her. Tim knew that but did she? He doubted it. All her interactions with Bruce after she dropped the Bat-Girl mantle seemed stilted, forced like she didn't think he wanted to speak to her.

Now he'd never get to tell her that she was wrong, that Bruce wanted her around, that he needed her. So many of them wanted her back-- Cass, who Bette adored. She seemed to go out of her way to help her, to understand what she was going through and she did everything she could to help.

Bette was the perfect sister to all of them, even to Charlie, and now that she was gone, Tim didn't know what would happen. Bette may not have ever seemed like a big factor in their patchwork family but having her gone made things a little darker, a little less hopeful. There was no one asking if he wanted another cup of coffee as the clock turned ten and there was no one snapping her fingers as an idea came to her, a new way to look at the case that occasionally helped solve it.

There was no Bette and that made him feel slightly empty. 

* * *

Three months without Bette, and things felt different. Tim, to be honest, felt like shit. His big sister had been missing for two months before any of them really starting to look for her, for an entire one before he even realized her absence. What if he hadn't? What if none of them had? Tim hated to think about it but he knew how likely it could have happened. It could have been an entire year before they realized she was gone and by then, it would be far, far too late.

He had already given up hope on finding her alive. He knew the facts and the figures and knew that she was dead. She would've found a way out, found a way back to them, if she wasn't.

Bette Kane was a lot of things but a quitter wasn't one of them. He remembered all the times she promised, no matter what, she'd make it back and kick his ass at tennis, that she would teach Steph some new moves and introduce Cass to 'Sailor Moon' and Damian to 'The Grey Ghost'. He remembered her always saying that she would return. And, sometimes, if he reached a level of sleep deprivation where everything around him was kind of fuzzy, he could imagine she was on her way back. He could pretend that she would tiptoe into his room when he was asleep, silently removing the insane amount of coffee mugs without waking him up.

And then he'd snap back into reality and everything would just _hurt_. 

* * *

Four months without Bette and Oracle got a tip-off. It was anonymous and none of them knew if it was trustworthy, but after months without any leads to follow, they were all willing to try it.

Tim figured that Bruce and Babs were the only ones who believed she was truly alive. He knew Kate and he knew that she wanted to believe her little cousin was still alive but she was practical. She knew the chances, just like he did, and she knew that things weren't looking good for Bette.

Babs couldn't find the source of the tip but Tim had a hunch who it was. Since it was just that, he didn't say anything. Instead, he watched as people Bette had known when she was his age and former Teen Titans, people like the Protector and Golden Eagle and even Beast Boy, all tried to help find her. He watched Jason Hart in particular throw himself into the hunt, trying everything to find his lost friend, and he didn't have the heart to tell him that Bette was gone.

She was gone and she wasn't coming back. 

* * *

After two years, they gave up the search. The Titans, the Batfamily, they all stopped. It wasn't right, not by any means, but Tim knew they couldn't take it any longer. Bruce, still holding onto the belief that she was alive and waiting for them to come and get her, was the only one that hadn't given up. Even Golden Eagle gave in, and according to Starfire, he and Bette used to be a thing, possibly in love.

In the end, Bruce was the only person looking for her, doing everything he could to find his family. And a little bit of Tim knew that he was aware the only thing he would find was a body but neither wanted to say it.

Tim knew Bette was dead. He had grieved and raged and gone through it all a year ago but that didn't mean he wanted to see the body. A body would... it would finalize it. In their world, people always came back and there were always times when he thought she would do the same.

She was supposed to, anyways, in the future that neither wanted to come true. 

* * *

Her funeral was a memory that he could do without. Burying an empty casket had been hard; seeing Bruce's face was somehow worse. Bette was his family, had been long before any of the rest of them came around. He found out from Bette that Bruce used to babysit her when she was a kid and had managed to get her hooked on 'Sailor Moon'. She probably had a billion and one more stories to tell him, ranging from embarrassing things Dick had done as Robin to oddly endearing things Bruce would do as a sign of affection.

He punched the Joker goon maybe a little too hard but he couldn't help it. The memory of her was killing him a little bit and he just wanted to stop. He wanted his big sister back, to have her make a stupid pun in an attempt to cheer him up. He wanted her staying up way too late to be healthy without him saying anything, offering her input on whatever he was working on but mainly just being there, keeping him company, he wanted to see making a dumb quip and punching Two-Face or offering Cass hot chocolate.

He wanted Bette back and the fact that that would never happen killed him inside.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
